Athletes from our world-leading paracanoe team are just days away from arriving at the Paralympic village in preparation for the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.
Here’s a bit more information on the ParalympicsGB squad before they compete between 6-8 September at the Vaires-sur-Marne stadium.
In July, ParalympicsGB announced the nine-strong squad going to Paris. This team is the biggest team to travel to a Games in paracanoe across any nation.
Jeanette Chippington OBE
She will be the oldest member of the ParalympicsGB team in Paris at 54, whilst also the longest serving Paralympian after her Paralympic debut at Seoul 1988
She went on to swim at Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004, winning a total of 12 medals.
Atlanta 1996 was her most successful Games where she won two gold, one silver and two bronze medals as well as breaking two world records.
Chippington carried that medal record into paracanoeing, becoming Paralympic champion in the women’s KL1 as the sport made its debut at Rio 2016, before winning VL2 bronze in Tokyo.
Emma Wiggs MBE
Emma is one of the most decorated athletes in paracanoeing history.
She won KL2 gold as paracanoeing appeared at the Paralympic Games for the first time at Rio 2016. At Tokyo 2020, she won a second Paralympic gold medal, this time in the VL2 .
In Tokyo, she also went on to claim silver in the KL2 to become the first female athlete to win two Paralympic paracanoe medals at a single Games.
Wiggs secured the 12th world title of her glittering career in Szeged in 2024, dominating the VL2 final to win gold, taking her career world tally to 16 medals in total.
At London 2012 she competed for ParalympicsGB in sitting volleyball.
At 18, while on her gap year, she contracted a virus that initially paralysed her and left her with irreparable damaged nerves in her legs.
Robert Oliver
Rob provided one of the most dramatic moments of the Paralympic paracanoe competition in Tokyo in 2021, when he claimed KL3 bronze after a photo finish.
That completed a five-year journey for Oliver, who finished fifth in the KL3 as paracanoeing made its debut on the Paralympic schedule at Rio 2016.
Oliver is a talented sportsman, after a spell as a weightlifter he played football at a variety of levels as a teenager. In 2008 he broke his leg during a match, which required 17 operations. Nine months later he had his leg amputated due to medical negligence.
Aged just 20, he felt like this area of his life had come to an end, until he found kayaking in 2011 through a Talent ID campaign.
Charlotte Henshaw MBE
Charlotte impressively became Paralympic champion at her first Games as a paracanoe athlete, claiming gold in the women’s KL2 event in Tokyo.
Paris will be Henshaw’s fifth Paralympic appearance, having competed at Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016 in para-swimming, where she won bronze and silver.
She will have the opportunity to become a double Paralympic Champion as she once again takes on the KL2, but will also compete in the women’s VL3, making its debut in Paris. She is current World Champion in both events after taking her world title tally to ten in Szeged, Hungary, in May.
Laura Sugar MBE
Laura became KL3 Paralympic champion in Tokyo in 2021 just three years after joining the World Class Programme.
With the golden glow of that performance still alive and well, Sugar went on to claim her maiden world title just two weeks later in Copenhagen.
Since then, Sugar has won four consecutive World titles, her latest in Szeged to kick off the 2024 season.
Sugar switched to paracanoe from athletics in 2018 thanks to Paddle UK’s talent ID process. As an international track and field athlete, she won four European medals.
She is also a talented hockey player, which is where she was introduced to para-sport. She still coaches hockey in her spare time.
Hope Gordon
After winning three silver medals from across the 2021 and 2022 World Championships, Hope reached the top of the globe in 2023.
The Scottish athlete won her first world title in the VL3 event in Duisburg, qualifying her spot for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, where the event will make its debut.
In 2022, she demonstrated the wide range of her talent by competing at the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games, where she became ParalympicsGB’s first ever female Para Nordic skier.
She was diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) before having to crowdfund £10,000 after the NHS wouldn’t pay for surgery with no guarantee it would work in curing her symptoms.
Jack Eyers
Jack became a two-time world champion in 2022 after a huge couple of years racing the men’s VL3 event.
In 2022 he also claimed a first European crown.
He relinquished his world title in 2023 but still demonstrated his status as one of the globe’s best by taking silver in Duisburg.
This performance also secured Britain’s boat quota spot for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
He first began his sporting career in wheelchair basketball and also competed in wheelchair racing, athletics, rowing and swimming before finding his home in canoeing.
Fun fact about Eyers ‒ he became the first amputee to be crowned Mr England back in 2017.
Ed Clifton
Ed Clifton will make his Paralympic debut at Paris 2024 as he competes in the men’s VL2 event, the first Brit to do so at a Paralympics.
Ed impressed on his international debut at the Poznan World Cup in 2022, where he finished seventh in the VL2.
A year later he competed at his first World Championships in 2023, placing ninth.
He was formerly a track and field athlete, competing across the throws events in the F56 class and representing the British team in 2019.
Dave Phillipson
Dave made his fourth appearance at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo, and first in paracanoe, finishing seventh in the KL2.
Dave made the switch from wheelchair tennis, where he had been British No.1 in 2008, and competed at three successive Paralympic Games: Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016.
He had an exceptional start to the 2024 season, winning KL2 silver at the World Championships in Szeged, also qualifying his for Paris 2024.
Since Tokyo, Dave has won four medals in the men’s KL2.